Santa Clara County
Biographies
MARY MURPHY
COLOMBET
While a fixed purpose dwelt in the minds of most of the pioneers of California, enabling them to endure untold hardships, not only on the way, but for years after arriving on the coast uncertain chance comes in for a fair share of honors, and to its vagaries must be attributed the establishment of some of the earliest and most prominent families of white origin along the Pacific. While yet the state was an undisturbed paradise, thinly populated by Spanish rancheros, Jesuit priests and flat-faced Indians, passing their lives in languorous inactivity, William Fisher, seaman and son of Thomas Fisher, also a seaman, landed at Cape St. Lucas, lower California, in the grip of a tenacious fever. He was cared for at the home of one Sipreeno Seccena a prosperous landsman, and after recovering and settling down to ranch life, married Liberata, daughter of his benefactor. William fisher was born in England and, following the example of his sire embarked in early life on a nautical career. From Boston he sailed around the Horn to California, being at that time twenty-eight years old. In 1845, before the peace of the ambitionless ease was broken by the cry of gold, the erstwhile sailor brought his substance to Santa Clara county, and at a sheriff’s sale bought the entire Laguna Secca ranch, extending for eight miles along Coyote creek, between the hills. The following year he was joined by his wife and children, and ever since then this ranch has been in the possession of the family, the six children being joint heirs and residents, one of them being Mrs. Mary Murphy Colombet. After the death of the sailor who had so unexpectedly entered her life, Mrs. Fisher married again, and as Mrs. George Bull lived in San Jose many years. Later in life she married Cicer Patea, a native of Italy. She still resides in San Jose, aged eighty-seven years. She came here with her daughter in her own sailing vessel, landing first at Monterey, where they visited relatives for a time.
In her youth Mary Fisher had the advantages of wealth and social standing, and following the example of her Spanish mother, married young. Her first husband was Daniel Murphy, son of Martin Murphy, and the ceremony was performed January 17, 1851. Her second marriage, with Peter Colombet, August 15, 1855, allied two of the best known families of their respective localities, Mr. Colombet being a son of Clement Colombet, one of the very first and most honored pioneers of California. A native of France he came to California in 1844 by vessel, settling in Alameda county at Mission San Jose, and later became one of the owners of Warm Springs, Alameda county. He married Ann Kell, who was born in Canada, and had, besides Peter, seven other children. Peter Colombet, like his wife, had superior educational opportunities, and after attending the Santa Clara College, embarked in general farming and fruit raising in Santa Clara county. He enjoys an enviable reputation as a horticulturist and business man, possessing the grit and determination which placed his sire among the foremost developers of Santa Clara county. By her first marriage Mrs. Colombet has four children, of whom Mrs. Mary Murphy Chapman is deceased; Dianna Murphy is the wife of Morgan Hill, of Washington D.C; Dan M. lives with his mother. The youngest daughter, Julia, is also deceased. The family are members of the Catholic Church of San Jose.
The property of this esteemed old family consists of forty-five hundred acres, of which about two thousand acres are under cultivation, and considered among the best land in Santa Clara county. The debt of gratitude Santa Clara owes to the Fisher and Colombet families will never be paid, but the names will be forever held in loving remembrance by the younger generations, who can learn much from the lives of the representative who prepared the way for the present and future prosperity of Santa Clara county.
Transcribed by
Louise E. Shoemaker,
May 07, 2015.
Source: History of the State of California &
Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A.
M., Page 544. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Louise E. Shoemaker.